Category Archives: Old Testament

Today I am sharing an aerial photo of Jerusalem that shows the entirety of the Old City. The 16th century Ottoman walls can be seen along the south and west of the city.

Jerusalem from the air. View north and east. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

The view is toward the north and east. You can see that the Judean wilderness is near the city of Jerusalem. Notice that the city is reflected on the wing of the plane. If you look carefully you can see the reflection of the Dome of the Rock and a portion of the Temple Mount. Click on the photo for a larger image. The image is large enough to use in presentations for teaching for those who are willing to spend some time studying the location of various Bible events.

Begin at Damascus Gate and walk east along Sultan Suleiman Street and you will soon come to the entrance to Solomon’s Quarries (also called Zedekiah’s Cave). See the previous post for a photo of the entrance and the history of how this underground quarry came to light in the 19th century.

At that point of the Old City north wall you will see the wall built high above a natural scarp of rock. Mackowski describes the stone here as Turonian limestone. He says,

Beneath these structures are the so-called Solomon’s Quarries, though we do not think that they should be looked for in the subterranean passages below, but in the area (through which the modern Sultan Suleiman Street passes) between this artificially cut rocky spur of Bethesda and its counterpart (opposite it to the north) which forms a part of Gordon’s Calvary and the traditional site of Jeremiah’s Grotto. (Jerusalem City of Jesus, Eerdmans, 1978, p.16).

Portions of the north wall of the Old City of Jerusalem is built on a natural scarp of rock. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

In this post we will follow-up the previous one about the modern discovery of Solomon’s Quarries with some photos. Our first photo shows the corridor leading from the entry south underneath the Old City.

Due to the artificial lighting each photo can look different due to the camera settings, and/or due to the adjustments in Photoshop.

Corridor leading south from the entry of Solomon’s Quarries. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

The next photo shows a wider area of the quarry, and you can see a fissure in the ceiling. Fissures like this one may account for Barclay’s description here:

Water was everywhere dropping from the lofty ceiling, which had formed numerous small stalactites and stalagmites—some of them very resplendent and beautiful, but too fragile to be collected and preserved. (The City of the Great King, p. 461)

Solomon’s Quarries. Notice the fissure in the ceiling. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Next we move into the largest area of the quarries. I think it is in this area where the recent TV series Dig built a pool in which a couple of the characters went skinny dipping. If you have been tempted to watch the series to learn about the archaeology of Israel, you might want to think again. Or, you could read the review in The Times of Israelhere.

Freemason’s Hall in Solomon’s Quarries. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Next we see the largest area of Solomon’s quarries. This large hall is called The Freemason’s Hall. A sign at the entry to the hall reads,

Members of the Freemason’s Society number among the many European tourists and visitors who have come to see the cave after it was rediscovered in the winter of 1854. The Freemasons regard King Solomon as the first biblical Freemason, and since the cave was popularly viewed as the quarry used by King Solomon in the building of the First Temple, the Freemasons have held their traditional ceremonies during the past century in the main chamber of the cave.

I suppose they would not mind if I take exception to the statement that Solomon was “the first biblical Freemason.”

The Freemason’s Hall in Solomon’s Quarries. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Earlier we cited Mackowski who suggested that the quarry used by Solomon was probably where Sultan Suleiman Street is now — between the outcropping of rock we showed above and the traditional Gordon’s Calvary.

Lasor reminds us that there is no archaeological evidence for this being Solomon’s Quarries, but that the tradition is not unreasonable.

A tradition that the stone for the temple was quarried in the area near the modern Damascus Gate, known as Solomon’s Quarries, Royal Quarries, Royal Caves, King Solomon’s Mines, and the cave of Zedekiah, is without archeological support, but the tradition is not unreasonable (cf. 1 K. 6:7). (W. S. Lasor, “Jerusalem.” ISBE (Rev. ed.) Vol. II, p.1008).

Dr. James Turner Barclay was sent to Jerusalem by the American Christian Missionary Society in 1851 as a medical and evangelistic missionary. During his first trip he stayed until 1854 and returned for a second stint from 1858 to 1861. Barclay was active in medical work, treating more than 2,000 cases of malaria during his first year in the city.

Grave stone of Dr. James T. Barclay, and his wife Julia, in the Campbell Cemetery at Bethany, West Virginia. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Barclay wrote a book in 1858 about the city of Jerusalem under the title The City of the Great King; or, Jerusalem As It Was, As It Is, and As It Is To Be. In it he tells about some of his explorations in and around the Old City. In a section dealing with nether Jerusalem he discusses the discovery of what is commonly called Solomon’s Quarry. Dr. J. T. Barclay inserts an article written by Dr. R. G. Barclay, his oldest son, about the exploration and their conviction that this was the quarry from which stone for the temple was taken.

This, without doubt, is the very magazine from which much of the Temple rock was hewn—the pit from which was taken the material for the silent growth of the Temple (The City of the Great King; Or, Jerusalem as It Was, as It Is, and as It Is to Be. pp. 462-463).

One of my graduate professors, Dr. Jack P. Lewis, wrote a series of articles about nineteenth century explorers of the Bible Lands in the Biblical Archaeologist (and perhaps some other journals). His article about Dr. Barclay was published in 1988 (Vol. 51). The biographical portraits have been collected in Early Explorers of Bible Lands, published by Abilene Christian University Press in 2013.

Entrance to Solomon’s Quarries on Sultan Suleiman Street about a block east of Damascus Gate. The sign to the left of the door identifies the place as King Solomon’s Quarries (Zedekiah’s Cave). Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Barclay claimed credit for discovering the cavern under the north wall of the city near the Damascus Gate. Popularly known as Solomon’s Quarries, this area is called Zedekiah’s Grotto by Israelis in honor of the last king of Judah. According to legend, Zedekiah is said to have fled Jerusalem through this cavern upon the Babylonian conquest of the city in 587 BCE J. J. Simons, who has identified the area as the Royal Caverns mentioned by Josephus (The Jewish War, book 5, chapter 4, paragraph 2; see Thackeray 1961: 245) estimated that 350,000 cubic meters of stone were quarried there (Simons 1952: 13).

When Barclay heard rumors of a cavern under the north wall, he tried to locate an entrance to it. He and his two sons conducted their search at night in order to avoid detection by Moslems, who would have opposed such an expedition.

The group made their way into the blocked cavern through a hole started by the Barclay dog when it was digging for bones. Once inside the cave they discovered Hebrew and Arabic inscriptions that were too effaced to be deciphered (Barclay 1858: 461–62; Johnson 1858: 98–100). They also found crosses carved into the walls, indicating the presence of Christian pilgrims from an earlier period.

The Barclays were disappointed that they found no outlet to the Haram or the Antonia fortress but they were impressed by the vast piles of blocks and chippings over which they had to clamber and were convinced they had discovered the quarries from which the stones for Solomon’s Temple were cut.

In a future post we will include some photos of the interior of the Quarries.

For more about Dr. James Turner Barclay and his work, see TheRestorationMovement website here.

The phrase “Assyrian Triangle” came to be used of three famous Assyrian cities of northern Mesopotamia: Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Nineveh. I think an understanding of this helps when we study Jonah 3:3.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. (Jonah 3:1-3 ESV)

Parrot says that the word Nineveh might have been understood by those living far away from Assyria by what we now call “‘the Assyrian triangle’ which stretches from Khorsabad in the north to Nimrud in the south, and with an almost unbroken string of settlements, covers a distance of some twenty six miles” (Nineveh and the Old Testament, 85-86).

As Alexander explains, this is,

“the region between the rivers Tigris, Zabu and Ghazir, extending from Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad) in the north to Calah (Nimrud) in the south” (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Vol.26).

A few days back we learned of the wanton destruction of gates at Nineveh and various artifacts from the museum in Mosul. Friday we learned from various news outlets that Nimrud was bulldozed.

Nimrud is identified with the Calah of Genesis 10:11-12. When I made a short visit to the region in 1970, we stopped at Tell Nimrud for only a few photos. Here is one that has held up fairly well.

A Lamassu at one of the entries to Assyrian Nimrud. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins, 1970.

For examples of these winged bulls in better condition we must visit the British Museum or one of the other museums where a few good examples may be found.

The other photo I am sharing is of the ruins of the ancient ziggurat at Nimrud. Our guide, George, is seen talking with a man I recall as being a keeper at the site. Ziggurats are common in Iraq, but because many of them were were made of mud brick they often resemble a pile of dirt from a distance.

Ruins of the ziggurat at Nimrud. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins, 1970.

Christopher Jones continues his good updates on the Gates of Ninevehhere. The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) has a helpful report here.

If you like to follow this sort of thing, the National Geographic report is here. A friend on FB sent the TIME report here.

Tel ‘Eton (also Tel Eiton and Tel Aitun) is not the easiest archaeological site to locate. The site is situated on Israel’s border with the Palestinian West Bank. Palestine is on the east side of the mound and a military firing range is on the west side. When Leon Mauldin and I located the place we decided it would be best to stick to the gravel road without straying too far to the left or the right — sort of like Joshua.

“Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. (Joshus 23:6-7 NAU)

Tel ‘Eton currently is equated with biblical Eglon by many scholars. Recent excavations have been conducted under the direction of Prof. Avi Faust of Bar Ilan University.

Here is a photo of the tel from the south and perhaps a little to the east.

Eglon is mentioned at least eight times in the Bible, all in the book of Joshua (10:3, 5, 23, 34, 36, 37; 12:12). The Scripture emphasizes that Israel defeated the king of Eglon. Notice the relationship between Lachish and Eglon.

And Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon, and they camped by it and fought against it. They captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword; and he utterly destroyed that day every person who was in it, according to all that he had done to Lachish. Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they fought against it. (Joshua 10:34-36 NAU)

The distance from Lachish to Eglon (on a straight line) is 7 miles. From Eglon to Hebron is 10½ miles.

An archaeological team has uncovered remains of what may have been an administrative center during the period when Judahite kings ruled out of ancient Jerusalem.

Led by project director Avraham Faust, an archaeologist with Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, Israel, excavations at the site of Tel ‘Eton located on the edge of the fertile Shephelah and the Hebron hill country to its east have revealed structures, artifacts, and fortifications that tell of an ancient city that historically straddled the eastern edge of the lowlands between the biblical kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem in the east and the cities of the Philistines on the Mediterranean coastal plains of the west.

Among the finds was a large, 240 sq.m. 8th century BCE house structure built following a four-room plan typical of ancient Israelite dwellings, featuring high-quality construction and, with its location at the highest point on the mound, commanding a strategic view of all areas below. The ancient building, along with its town context, was strategically located at the cross-roads of important north-south and east-west routes, set above fertile agricultural country.

“The structure was excavated, almost in its entirety, and was composed of a large courtyard with rooms on three sides,” stated Faust. “The building was nicely executed, including ashlar stones in the corners and openings. Hundreds of artifacts were unearthed within the debris, including a wide range of pottery vessels, loom weights, many metal objects, botanical remains, as well as many arrowheads, evidence of the battle which accompanied the conquest of the site by the Assyrians.”

The article also reports,

But the most abundant finds for the early periods were dated to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1200/1150 BCE).

When I began to learn of and appreciate the work of André Parrot, Curator-in-Chief of the French National Museums, Professor at the School of the Louvre, and Director of the Mari Archaeological Expedition, I purchased most of those masterful little books he wrote about Biblical cities. In connection with the recent post about Nineveh I took down my well-marked copy of Nineveh and the Old Testament (1955) and began to read again.

André Parrot writes of his April 1950 arrival at Mosul.

During the twenty years spent in Iraq or in Syria, we had never had an opportunity to cross the ‘Assyrian triangle’ Once again we realized how necessary it is to see in order to understand, and especially to hold in the memory. Knowledge gained from books is certainly not enough, for names which are not attached to any reality are nothing more than ghosts. Ghosts of cities, shadows of men, vague floating shapes, without solidity, though one tries to capture it with the aid of a drawing, a photograph or a vivid description. All students of archaeology know this by experience: nothing can replace actual contact with the object. That is why museums are so important; because there one can recognize the long chain of human history stretching out continuously from its beginning, but in which, instinctively we have a special interest in detecting and observing the first links. But the object is a prisoner in its glass case. Tom from its natural surroundings it has lost its true speech. Nevertheless it exerts a pull, it beckons one to take the road. It is impossible to contemplate the Assyrian reliefs in the Louvre or the British Museum without calling up the image of Nineveh.

Parrot points out that a visit to Nineveh can be disappointing “if one expects to see murals or palaces.” These things, he says, have been destroyed or crumbled away.

No kingdom endures forever, as the prophet Daniel reminded us long ago. Parrot says that he had only four days to visit the Assyrian Triangle (Nineveh, Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Asshur). In the evenings during his visit, he stayed with the Dominican Fathers. He says his memory of Nineveh,

is bound up with that of Mosul and the white cell in the monastery where, every evening of that short stay, we were able to meditate only a few yards from the Assyrian capital, on the vanity of empires and the fate which awaits all of them.

For the same reasons I have spent many years encouraging Bible students to visit the Bible lands.

The British Museum displays many reliefs from Nineveh. Information posted with the relief below says that it dates to about 700-692 BC. It comes from the SW Palace, Rm. 14, panels 13-15. After the capture of Alammu, a town of uncertain location, the prisoners are brough before the Assyrian king. Some carry heads of the dead. The king, Sennacherib, was shown in his chariot, but this part is now lost (WA 124786-7). Click on the photo for a larger image.

This Assyrian relief from Nineveh shows Prisoners from the town of Alammu. British Museum. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

The ancient site of Nineveh is located about 300 miles north of Baghdad. The mound is one mile east of modern Mosul near the bank of the Tigris River.

Nineveh, the most renowned capital of the Assyrian Empire, is most prominent in the Bible during what we call the Neo-Assyrian Period (900-612 B.C.). Well known kings include Ashurnasirpal (885-860 B.C.), Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.), Tiglath-pileser (745-727 B.C.), Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), and Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.), and Ashurbanipal (669-c. 627 B.C.). [List and dates from the revised ISBE article by Donald J. Wiseman.]

Nineveh fell in 612 B.C., and the Assyrian Empire came to an end at the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C.

The LORD called it “that great city” (Jonah 1:2), but little remains of the grandeur and the beauty of ancient Nineveh. My only opportunity to visit Nineveh was on May 14, 1970. I would like to have better photos, but I wanted to share a few slides that I made of the gates.

The first photo shows some reconstruction around the Addad Gate. Ancient ruins can be seen at the entry. This is the gate we have seen continuously on various news programs since the first week we learned of the Islamic State (also ISIS and ISIL) in the area. (I have replaced the colorless sky with blue. Or, is it gold?)

Addad Gate of ancient Nineveh. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins, 1970.

The next gate is known as the Nergal Gate. In 1970 there was one complete winged bull and one partially destroyed bull within the reconstructed gate.

Jonah the prophet was sent to preach in Nineveh. See the book of Jonah and the comment Jesus made on this in Matthew 12:38-41. You will notice Nebi Yunus on the sketch map. This designated the tomb of the Prophet Jonah according to Islamic tradition. Incidentally, Jonah is popular in the Muslim religion and there are several monuments to him. He is said to be buried at Nebi Yunus and at Mashad (Gath-hepher) in Israel. Some reports indicate that this tomb has been destroyed by IS.

At another time we may discuss some of the significant biblical events associated with Nineveh.

Yesterday I watched the 5+ minute video of the destruction of artifacts in the Mosul Museum. Later last evening I thought I would watch it again, but discovered that it had been taken down by YouTube. Excerpts are currently available at the BBC, the Daily Mail, and likely other news outlets.

We can be thankful that great collections from the ancient Assyrian Empire can be seen at the British Museum and the Louvre, with smaller collections scattered in other museums. To this thought Todd Bolen added, “where they are safe, for now.” Another friend wrote by Email, “If they [ISIS thugs] are not stopped, this could be coming to a museum or library near you!!”

I just came across a blog called Gates of Nineveh written by Christopher Jones, a Ph.D student in ancient Near Eastern history at Columbia University. Some of our readers might find this site helpful.

Update. Christopher Jones assesses the damage at the Mosul Museum. He identifies many of the pieces recently destroyed in a current post here. I have added this blog to my list of blogs I follow on the Scholarly Page of the Biblical Studies Info Page.